Tree crashed into our garage during a snowstorm. Insurance has done almost nothing for 2 months.

I've never had to deal with such a lagging and unresponsive insurance company in my life. My area (Northern California) has one or two major snowstorms during the winter. When this happens, hundreds of trees fall. It turns our town into a disaster area, with downed trees everywhere knocking out power lines and causing serious damage. One year, we were out of power for two weeks.

On February 17th, we had one of these snowstorms. We woke up to a massive amount of snow on the ground. While I was pouring my morning coffee, we were met with a terrifying, house shaking crash. A very large tree fell and made its way into our garage. Thankfully, it wasn't the house.

My wife called our insurance company within a couple of hours. They sent an adjuster out a few days later, and a roofing company the week after, and then nothing for weeks.

About a month ago, we finally heard from them, but only to ask for photographs from the day it happened. The adjuster had a full photography rig and took photos for an hour, so I do not understand why this was necessary.

A little over two weeks ago, we received an email from a tree company stating, “A crew has been assigned to your home. We will reach out when we have an estimated time of arrival.” I called immediately to find out when, and was told no one is actually coming out. They were assigned to review photographs to determine why the tree fell.

My wife called the agent on March 31st and was put on hold for an extended period of time and eventually had to hang up to go to work. She called again the next morning and left a message. I then sent an email that Friday. We finally heard back from him on April 10th (in response to my email), stating they're still reviewing how the tree fell.

So here’s the kicker: when we originally called, the agent stated that this was probably not something to worry about in our case, but that the insurance company does not cover damage caused by wind. I think they're trying their hardest to claim that the tree fell because of wind and not the massive amount of weight from the snow that accumulated in a very short period of time.

I'm no arborist, but I do know that typically a tree felled by wind will uproot, while a tree felled by snow will snap. The tree did not uproot at all; it snapped cleanly at the base.

I was in and out all day, shoveling, gassing up the generator (we didn't have power, of course), and generally hanging out on our porch. My wife and I love to bundle up and watch the snow. It was calm, quiet, and beautiful, with very little to no wind.

If they try to deny this claim by blaming it on wind, is there any recourse? Also, since then, we've had a couple of weeks of heavy rainstorms, which have, of course, caused more internal damage due to their lack of action. I did file a report with the California Department of Insurance, since they are well outside the 40 days required by California law.